With the use of computers and web-based applications, ever greater amounts of information can be made accessible on-line to end users. In the recent past, on-line databases were specialized in content, covering only a particular type of records, such as trademarks, or technical articles in a particular field. Thus, the databases and access tools were particularly designed with that content in mind. A user with multiple information needs was faced with an environment as shown in FIG. 1. Each information need required working with a separate system and its particular user interface, providing access to a particular database (or set of related databases), serviced by access and billing software particular to that information resource. The improvements in mass storage capacity and speed have permitted databases to grow enormously in size and allowed a single provider to offer multiple databases.
However, the increase in size of collections of computerized information and the expectations of users for speed in retrieval and user-friendly forms of use and document delivery create challenges for information providers. The legacy user interfaces and access systems are often user-friendly only to those highly accustomed to using them, and most user interfaces and access systems tailored to particular content have differences between them that make it hard for a user of one system to move easily to a system for other content. Even if users can accept the differences, the operators have not found it efficient to simply load separate legacy systems on faster processors with larger storage devices.
In addition, using one legacy system to access and share the database of another system is usually difficult, if not impossible. Even if legacy databases can be shared between legacy systems, other inefficiencies may arise. Often, the same information is requested by different users for different purposes. Thus, the same information may be made available through multiple research resources or channels (such as a legal or financial document service, versus a news service) to different types of users. To make the same information available through multiple resources, the data is often duplicated and stored in separate databases. Further, different user inquiry applications, including associated user interfaces, may be used to access each separate database. This arrangement is typically inefficient, because it requires duplicate development and support efforts and duplicate storage of the information. Moreover, it makes difficult any changes to existing systems in response to changed customer relationships or marketplace conditions.
For the information provider, two basic objectives are maximizing the information available for sale to users and maximizing flexibility in vending the information. These goals mean that the information provider can appeal to many different kinds of users, offer different levels of access and modes of delivery and deliver information that is tailored in content and format. Pursuing these objectives permits the information provider greater flexibility in matching different users with different products and pricing, and in taking on new content and customers.
To address these objectives, there is a need for a centralized information database and information management system that allows multiple users to access the same information from different applications, web-based and otherwise. There is a further need for an efficient architecture/infrastructure model for building such applications to access large aggregations of electronically stored documents.